Another Ferrari 488 Pista ringer? R&T 2019 Performance Car of the Year

Automotive magazines are not what they used to be and today survive predominantly on their established relationships with automakers. Many of those automakers are not afraid to abuse those relationships as the magazines are dependent on exclusive content to stay relevant.

Ferrari abuses this power. They do it blatantly and just do not care. The perception of Ferrari being the best is all that matters. Truthfully, McLaren took the reigns as far as the most impressive and technologically advanced high performance automaker from Ferrari a while ago.

They are not the only ones. BMW is known to use 'press files' for testing. How do you explain Car and Driver getting a 10.9 @ 129 out of the stock F90 M5 and Road and Track getting an 11.4 @ 123.0 out of the more powerful F90 M5 Competition?

You can't. The F90 M5 is not going to run six miles per hour of trap speed higher than the F90 M5 Competition. Car and Driver got a ringer to generate hype.

We can only use the acceleration figures to get a general idea and the same goes for the laptimes:

The Senna managed a stellar 1:23.34. The E63 S wagon had an accident and did not lap.

Somehow the Corvette ZR1 is chosen as the winner in this group. A group with a McLaren Senna in it. Why the ZR1 wins is not explained all that well. They say you are allowed to have it in manual or automatic which, yes, is a big deal for an enthusiast but is the ZR1 really a better performance car than a GT2 RS? A 488 Pista? A McLaren Senna?

Most embarrassing R&T article I’ve ever read. They chose the ZR1 because it was a comparative bargain. Can you believe that $#@!? They’re on par with Consumer Reports now as far as I’m concerned. Done with that joke of a mag, they’re all in the bag one way or another to manufacturers or other interests. Just total rubbish.